Kyle Hutchinson

Kyle Hutchinson is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto. He received his M.A. (2014) and B.Mus (2012) degrees, both in Music Theory, from Western University, and is excited to be returning to the Don Wright Faculty of Music.

Kyle’s research focuses on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century music, particularly that of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. In particular, Kyle is interested in understanding chromatic tonality as an extension of common-practice precedents, and the question of “modernism” as it relates to the musical language and syntax of composers in the early twentieth century.

Kyle has presented research at regional and national conferences, including the Music Theory Society of New York State, Music Theory Midwest, and the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic. In 2018, Kyle’s research on chromatically altered diminished-seventh chords in the music of Wagner and Strauss won the George Proctor Prize for best graduate student paper at the national Canadian University Music Society Conference. Kyle was also the recipient of the Faculty of Music’s award for outstanding Teaching Assistant at U of T, and he was one of twelve candidates shortlisted for a university-wide award in 2017. Kyle also delivers pre-opera talks for the Canadian opera company: in 2019–2020 he will be speaking before productions of Puccini’s Turandot, and Wagner’s Die fliegende Holländer.